Duelist League: Training Day

Carmina Gadelica. The town where people can live without a formal tie to the other kingdoms. Sans Uruk. Uruk is new. It is close to Alne, at the base of the tower, and home to Adventurers.

Most importantly for the Duelist League: It is a Root Town.

Today Soujiro is dressed in his whites and reds, the colors of the Aincrad Liberation Front's Blood Knights. He is one of a dozen senior adventurers that are assembled at the outskirts of the town where people appear to be fighting. Sparring? Training?

Training?! Soujiro is pumped! With him is a tall werefang fox that could pass as a model that is keeping things 'in line' along with Soujiro's 'sports!' energy. The werefox looks to Soujiro as a group of 12 go off to practice what the duo just went over. "You always, always always always, act on impulse," she tells him, "so I am giving instructions to the next group." Soujiro is still waving to the group that is leaving, eyes turning to the werefox with a smile that follows. "Would that be more fun for you?" he asks.

"Its the crack of dawn! I could be sleeping. Or drinking. Or snacking," she starts going on. Although 'organized' she is a pretty lazy person. "You are lucky you have a pretty face, Soujiro," she taps her foot as the samurai knows how to push her buttons. "Here is the next group," he lets her know, which snaps her into 'Time to be a living instruction manual' mode. The joy is instense(ly lacking).

Yeowang has shown up for training. The early hour does not bother her. The hard training does not bother her. The game balance bothers her, but she's trying to work with that, or learn how it works, but games are her little brother's thing, and she never had much interest before. But she is here now, and she had better learn to play this game quickly, hadn't she? She would have been with the first group, but there is travel time, and her accomodations in the area are some distance off, but she has arrived now. "Good morning," she greets. She's dressed in what has become her typical garb: black pants and a lightweight black jacket, buttoned up to her throat. The hood today is thrown back, as she's not sneaking anywhere, though her long blonde hair is gathered up in a fairly substantial bun at the back of her head.

Carmina Gadelica is a town that Curtana rarely visits, mainly out of choice. After a few trips here in the past turned unpleasant, he saw it best to avoid the city and the Tower entirely unless there's enough need for it. Those occasions do come up, such as what is bringing the Pooka knight. Training is important, after all, and this kind of training is something he's honestly lacking in.

It's not hard to see the self-styled knight coming in with the 'next group', his platemail gleaming in the morning sunlight. Somewhat shaggy brown hair covers most of his pointy ears, and his eyes look alertly around him. Even still, there's a sense of nervous energy just under the surface. "Good morning, everyone. Hopefully the day is finding you well?"

The tall werefox lady turns to face the next group with the sort of smile that looks like they are about to give a tour of Carmina. Not too far off as she starts with, "If you are here to learn about the Duelist League you are in the right place," as it catches at least half of the group to wander towards the town as they were more curious 'what is this group doing'. "Soujiro and I will be instructing this group." And instantly the ones that drifted away snap back into the 'Yes, I am here for whatever you are selling' position.

Soujiro gives the werefox a look and a smile that says 'You sure you dont want me to speak to this group?' What a pain in the boo-tay. Shame she can't stay mad at him.

"The Duelist League is a /non-partisan/ organization open to all Adventurers," she starts, "which means your guild, alliance, kingdom, race, class, profession, or anything else doesn't matter here. What matters is that you are an Adventurer, you can fight, and you adhere to the rules to keep it a safe and sporting. You," and she looks at the crowd a moment before elbowing Soujiro, "can register at any Root Town or ask any representative that is watching an active duel. Preferably after the duel. They are fun to watch and even more fun to be in, as we will demonstrate in the drills today."

Yeowang looks over to Curtana, nods a greeting, "Good morning. I'm well, how are you?" she says to him. She will linger as Seta mentions the Duellists' League; she's not a member, ironically, but she probably should be. But it's a bit embarassing. When you can do a thing in real life but not in a game, what are you? Well, it took her eight years in RL to become a champion, maybe she just needs more time? She nods through the intro schpiel, she knows /about/ the Guild already, she's just here in case there's info she doesn't know. How to play the game effectively is what she needs, but those lessons are hard, and entirely situational.

As nearly half of the group pulls away and then is drawn back, Curtana can't help but just shake his head in disbelief. Were they just that curious or had absolutely no clue what they were doing here? Then again, if you wake up and see dozens of people fighting each other this early in the morning, it's sure to draw some curious looky-loo's.

"Pretty good, all things considered. Just might have to get breakfast after we are done here today." As for Curtana's reasons for being here? First, practice for the League which he signed up for, and just to get used to fighting others in a safe environment. Deciding to raise his hand to draw attention to himself, he asks what some of those here might be asking. "Are you going to demostrate a duel for us first or will we be pairing up first?"

The crowd starts asking questions and the werefox instructor points out to Curtana, "You'll be the first we pair up." There is a glint in her eye. She didn't say with who. Soujiro calls back out to Curtana, "We do the pairing after the instructions. Nozuna and I will be helping since you can't see the menu commands involved." He swipes his hand in front of himself to bring up an invisible menu. A duel request is sent over to Curtana as an example. "You can let that one time out," the samurai says.

"As Soujiro just demonstrated, to start a duel you have to follow conditions. First, Duels for the Duelist League must occur within the Root Town. Thats the only place the duel command functions." A pause as she starts seeing other hands raise, "Because the Root Town provides protections that keep you from dying. Once you hit the last ten percent of your health the duel will end. If an attack would take you way past that, say you let loose a heavy attack when your opponent is at ten percent? The protection absorbs everyone past that. Dueling in Root Towns is for your safety, the buildings safety, and those watching you."

Some hands go down. Another one goes up. "Wasn't the last Tournament held in Eas?" a voice shouts out.

Er. Soujiro and Not-Nazuna look at each other. Soujiro says, "League decisions for major events like tournaments may bend this a bit. We don't have Root Towns on top of volcanos, or at the bottom of the ocean, and the venue for big events is to make people excited."

Shenmi wanders into the area from... somewhere, really. Nowhere in particular. He just shows up, like that. "I hear they promised to be really, really, REALLY careful and implement safety measures," Shenmi gestures in the distance. Towards Eas. People might know that he already is a registered member of the Duelist League. Likely, he is here to assist by pairing up with non-members to show them the ropes.

Yeowang looks skeptical at the group's antics. She is not so inconstant, nor did she @lemming here following a group in hopes that interesting things were afoot. She nods to Curtana about getting breakfast, though she says, "I've long since eaten. Though I suppose it's nearly lunchtime." She just maintains an earlier schedule than so many of the gamers. She looks over as Curtana asks about a demo, she's interested in the plan for today also.

She listens quietly as Seta explains about duelling, and raises her hand with the same question about Eas, then lowers it when it is answered. She imagines in situations like that, people are on their own to observe the niceties, but so far, it seems like players in Yamato at least are not into PKilling for sport. And some of the Palace Landers seem OK, she considers as Shenmi arrives.

As has been becoming more common when you have a Shenmi there is a Daiyu not far behind. And after an quick but astute taking in of what's going on, she can only smirk a little. "Leave it to Soujiro to find a way to both train, and help some of the less experienced do so as well." She got her first rundown Duelist League fight with the samurai so this wasn't really a shock to her.

"Attacking another player outside of a town and without a dueling function is PKing, or Player Killing," Not-Nazuna states with a degree of strictness to her voice. "Even if it is not intentional, you will get flagged as an aggressor or response-to-aggressor and they call it 'kill on sight' and not 'check-to-see-if-I-should-attack-that-red-name-first-on-sight' for a reason. Remember. Root Town. Duel Function. Root Town. Duel Function."

Soujiro, who /has/ been killed by Root Town Guardians before, attests, "Attacking in a Root Town without a dueling function will attract Guardians that are very strong. Remember to issue a duel." Sparkly smile. Duel smart. Duel S-mart.

"So our first drill today is going to be issuing duel commands. /Each Party/ will exchange at least one attack. Then forfeit and switch. The League is not recording these wins or losses as a Training exercise, but good sportsmanship will be observed." the werefox says. She steps away from Soujiro, "If you have dueled before, come to this side." Odd choice. But then it becomes obvious that people who 'have not done a thing' are less likely admit it. Unless... "And if you haven't, go to Soujiro's side." There are even people who were walking over to the werefox's side that moonwalk back to fangirl over Souji.

"So many newomers to dueling! Im excited to be your teacher today," Souji bows to them.

To say that Curtana was a little surprised as the duel request was sent his way was an understatement, as he wasn't expecting that to be sent right away. Thankfully for the knight, he isn't going to be used as a training dummy for the samurai and he lets the duel request to time out. As for hearing how Duels actually function? Curtana could feel a lot of built-up stress and tension in his muscles ease after hearing just how much precautions go into ensuring no Adventurer dies in a sanctioned Duel. "So no chance of accidental killing...that's very good to know, then."

It also means that everyone he could fight will be doing so with all of their ability since there's no chance of collateral damage. While that means things could easily get overwhelming at times, he doesn't have to hold himself back either in such a duel.

That's easier said than done.

It's easy to see which side Curtana heads to, as she walks on over to Soujiro's area. He's not a fanboy but he has seen the Samurai in action and he certainly has respect for him. "As the saying goes, i'll be in your care today, sensei."

Yeowang has, in fact, never done a duel in-game, and so takes the appropriate walk. Fighting in the game is so unlike fighting in RL, so she tries to take in all the information, as this is all stuff she ... well, she's kind of picked it up, but mostly she's never formally learned it. Now she's learning it. She will view this as day one of her training, and not like she's been doing martial arts since age five.

Shenmi is firmly planted in the "have dueled before" area. Someone's gotta hold that ground, and given his basic experience in dueling and extensive experience in having the ladies shun him for someone more fangirl'able (Bao the Bun-Bun assistant), he's just a natural for working as a human marker pole for the least popular side. "Experienced combatants, this way! We are very inclusive here. Just one duel, and you're good to enter. You don't even have to be this tall to ride!"

He quickly asides to Daiyu, "Dueled him. Kid's got skills. He'll go far."

"I know." Daiyu replies as she joins Shenmi's side. "Soujiro was kind enough to introduce me to the League's process, and indulge my curiousity in how the styles and tactics of the Yamatoan Adventurers differ from our own. A formidable yet honorable fighter he is."

Soujiro greets Curtana and Yeowang with their own bow. "Curtana, you are in good care. Yeowang, you are also in god care." Everyone is in good care! Which means full HP bars to fight with. "I hope both of you find your own path to enjoying dueling," he says in 'who wouldnt, fighting is great' sort of way. Although no one can see his meny, he swipes up to open his own. "The first step is the big one. Curtana, I want you to issue a duel request to Yeowang. If you swipe the menu and you are in town, there is a button near the chimlink functions called 'Duel'. Hit that and select Yeowang." Blue eyes look to Yeowang, "And Yeowang, you will get a request and a timer, similar to a Guild, Party, or Raid invite. Accept and get a feel for the combat state it puts you in. Once comfortable, exchange blows. Fighting players feels different than monsters."

*****

Meanwhile, on the 'Yes I have Dueled' field with Not-Nazuna, the werefox looks to the smaller group. "You all know how to fight. So. Show the newbies how its done," she says with a /lot less/ polish than moments ago. She materializes a lawn chair and lays on it. "Except you," she points out to a member of the A-team, "I need you to go find me a drink and a snack." Look, training people is hard and she wants a break.

Following Soujiro's instructions to a tee, he swipes his menu and taps on the unfamiliar Duel icon before sending a request to Yeowang. Once that is done, Curtana unsheathes his longsword and adjusts his kite shield on his arm, making sure everything is secure. With that, he takes a defensive position, letting Yeowang deal the first strike. "Whenever you are ready then, Yeowang. I'm going to need a lot of practice..."

Yeowang will accept the duel with a bit of clumsiness, she avoids the menu entirely if she can help it, and for most things she doesn't need it. For this, she does, and it's a bit slow and cumbersome. OK, very slow and cumbersome. She is, for all her bravado and poise, not very good at the game mechanical side of the game. She doesn't comment, though, because that'd just make her look like even more of an idiot. How hard can a game be? She finally does answer the duel request, and to get a feel for the combat state, such as it is. She bows formally to Curtana, because that's how you start a fight in her experience. When Curtana squares off against her, she will assume a ready stance and offer him a nod. "I am ready."

Daiyu just rolls her eyes a bit at the other fox in a bit of amusement as she drops part of the primness act once they're past the formalities. The lawn chair is a neat trick. Being one to observe until needed herself, she can't fault the other vulpine for wanting to be comfortable while she's 'supervising. "This will be interesting." Presume there's practice fighting going on over here while most people focus on the learning process between Yeowang and Curtana.

"No, try again..."

The Adventurer opposite Shenmi, a portly, very young looking Grunty cait sith as it were, attempts to thrust his sword towards the magician, with the result of tripping on his own feet and falling forward on his face.

Shenmi stands still for a moment, then hunches over, offering one hand. "They're called Sword Artes. You're supposed to perform the motions within the range recognized by the game. -Then- it will be performed as an actual technique."

He's doing this for the third time in a row. One thing one has to give him credit for, is how patient he seems to be with the most clueless of young newbies.

Yeowang continues the sparring for a couple rounds, then pauses as she seems to be pounding on a punching bag that, after some initial success, is proving impossible to hurt. "So at what point does training happen?" she asks dryly, standing ready, but not immediately attacking. To Curtana, she says, "Your ability to defend surpasses my ability to attack, it seems, though I had hope after my initial attack. It seems you were just getting up to speed."

Curtana may have been ready at first, but Yeowang is proving to be quite a skilled opponent. Their first initial salvo of attacks sends his shield aside and causes several deep red lines on his body, but he starts to find a pathern on how the attacks come. However, someone focused entirely on defense can never truly win a duel. "Honestly? You're pushing that to the limit, and not really giving me a chance to fight back. If I even lower my guard to try to fight back, you'll easily take me out." It's the truth, plain and simple. He doesn't even raise up to Yeowang's possible taunt, he just focuses back on defending from the upcoming onslaught.

Daiyu is eventually pulled aside by one of the trainees. Daiyu, being new to the Duelist's League but very familiar with PvP combat from her days in Lumina Cloth's arena, does hold back a little. If only not to completely overwhelm her sparring partner. But she does give a really good demonstration on how the elements can be woven into physical Sword Arts and not just used for magic spells.

Despite Curtana's decision to focus on the defensive, he knew he had to try something. Throwing out his longsword and attempting to catch Yeowang off guard with his Whirling Spark was apparently not the right thing to do, however. That becomes apparent as his defenses are torn apart, and a hasty defense with his returned longsword does nothing against a powerful punch against his armor, sending him tumbling onto the ground. Wincing and thankful Soujiro wasn't lying about the protection, he gently sit back up and waves his shield towards Yeowang, conceeding his defeat. "Good job there!"

Yeowang unexpectedly finds her hard, unrelenting attacks able to break through and overwhelm Curtana's initially robust defenses. She's had a couple practice fights before, and the unbreakable defense is a familiar frustrattion. But then the defense seems to be overwhelmed. This hasn't happened before, and the surprise is plain on her face. But she'll finish the fight with a surprise punch from the extended hand that sends Curtr flying. She does offer a bow afterward, because that's how she's used to finishing a match, and then will offer him a hand up to get to his feet. "Thank you," she says as he praises her. "But I must depart now." And she will head out to her next appointment.

Daiyu finishes her own training duel, bowing to her opponent. Then their attention turns to the spar between the other two newcomers, nodding a bit. Curtana was a capable tank, Yeowang just had the offensive strength to overcome defenses. "Do not let one loss deter you. The circumstances of a duel can be vary each time, changing the results. Even against the same foes."

Taking Yeowang's offered hand, Curtana pulls himself up before giving her a bow in return. He doesn't seem surprised by his lost either but is glad that he did gave her a good way to practice her attacks on a defensive opponent. "Hopefully that was some good training!"

Sheathing his longsword, Curtana backs off a little and takes a seat to watch the more experienced duelists train on one another. That, and he needs to let his health restore after that last spar. "The problem is my combat style is built entirely about being defensive. Any attempt to go on the offensive tends to leave me completely exposed. It's why I invest so much into my armor and shield."

"Yes, yes... like that, right!"

It seems like the Grunty cait sith finally got the hang of it, and is dueling properly with another Peko cait sith; Shenmi, at this point, mostly watches with his arm crossed, intervening only occasionally when strictly necessary. These kids seem to be on their way to learning on their own.

But then, sudden interruption! The duel nearby, between Yeowang and Curtana, reaches an end! Shenmi spins on a foot and applaud. "Excellent job, you got all the way to the end, and it lasted a while!"

He walks over to the duo, and nods his head at Curtana. "You are just beginning. This is exactly part of the learning process. Tanks, in particular, are one of the classes that have a bit of a slightly steeper learning curve when it comes to the very few first duels. But constant training usually solves that. I suggest contacting fellow tanks, experienced duelists, and exchanging tips and tricks."

Serious, he raises his chin, and declaims. "And remember! The goal of the duelist league is not to win! It is to have fun, and hopefully learn as much as possible. Better to find and fix your weaknesses in a controlled environment rather than in front of a raid boss!"